Women in religion p.g.35~93

Eons ago, perhaps all religious practices fell into the category that we now call" Indigenous Religions." This is a catch-all term encompassing all remaining cultures, generally tribal, in which local religious practices and beliefs are still alive, usually in close relationship to the land upon which the people live. Religion and everyday life are often so interwined that the people may have no word for"religion" as a thing apart that occurs only sometimes in temples.
Nonetheless, there is clear evidence that women have in the past played important spiritual roles in many of these societies and to the extent that their traditional lifeways have survives, they still do. Indigenous cultures provide some of the world's strongest examples of women as religious leaders, but also, in some cases, evidence of oppression of females in the name of religion.
Considerable controversy is now raging about the relative position of women in Hinduism. Hindu nationalist factions are trying to portray Hindu women as having always enjoyed great respect, but feminists are attempting to call attention to the existence of not only oppression but also violence against them.

My opinion.
Women's role now in religion has been changed a lot. They and men have almost balanced in religion. But many years ago, women were not very respected by people. In Hinduism, as the negative began, there is a startling sex imbalance in the Indian population because of the preference for male babies. Women had to bare the responsibility for male babies. There are stories of "dowry death" in which women are killed by their in-laws for not meeting all their dowry demands. But now for Indian women, they are discovering bold inner resources that have long lain dormant beneath the mantle of submissiveness dictated by Brahmanic and cultural mores.
In contrast ot the general Western view of a world of inanimate, insensitive things, with which humans can do as they like, tribal peoples tend to see the world as consisting of relatives. And the spiritual culture of indigenous people is passed down from generation to generation.